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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27270397">Whatever Happened to Isaac Heller?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taisch/pseuds/Taisch'>Taisch</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who, Once Upon a Time (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, The Land of Fiction (Doctor Who), background Wish!Rumbelle</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 02:47:55</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>6,992</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27270397</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taisch/pseuds/Taisch</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac Heller wrote one bestseller, then vanished off the face of the earth. No one seems to remember him except Bill Potts.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Whatever Happened to Isaac Heller?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>To make the crossover work, I'm taking a few liberties with the timeline and canon (and ignoring most of the spin-off material as far as Doctor Who is concerned).  Takes place in the same continuity as my other story <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/18262541">"The GOOD Queen"</a>. Set during series 10 for DW, post-series for OUAT.</p>
<p>Written for the "Break the Cliché" Challenge for the Writers Anonymous forum on fanfiction.net.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <hr/>
<p>"So there's this author, right?" Bill found the Doctor in the TARDIS waiting
for her. "Isaac Heller. American."</p>
<p>"Never heard of him." The Doctor peered at her from the other side of
the central console, his hands hovering over the controls in anticipation. His
eyebrows quirked, inviting her to give him a reason to care.</p>
<p>"No one has, which is the weird thing," explained Bill. She whipped out a
lavishly illustrated hardback. "He wrote this one bestseller, then vanished
off the face of the earth after a book signing, and no one seems to
remember him at all."</p>
<p>The Doctor shrugged. "Happens all the time. One-hit wonder, then a quick fade
to obscurity."</p>
<p>"No, I mean, literally. He was even scheduled to stop in Bristol as part of
his tour, only he never showed." Bill shot the Doctor a knowing look. "But
there was no investigation. No follow-up, nothing. So I'm thinking... alien
abduction!"</p>
<p>The Doctor returned the look. "What? It wasn't me. Honestly!"</p>
<p>"I didn't say it was. But you can wipe people's memories. You were going to do
it to me. It's a thing!"</p>
<p>"Talked me out of it, didn't you?" grumbled the Doctor.</p>
<p>Bill rolled her eyes, but wondered if he had jarred something loose in her
memories after all, as she hadn't thought of Heller's book in ages, her eyes
always flicking past it on her bookshelf. It was only after she had met the
Doctor that she remembered the mysterious disappearance. "Well, I think we
should investigate."</p>
<p>The Doctor reached out for the book. "I'll take a look. No promises." He
flipped it open, revealing an old newspaper clipping folded between the pages.
"Ah."</p>
<p>"There was just the one article, then nothing," said Bill.</p>
<p>"Quick trip won't do any harm," the Doctor mused, with a glance at the door.
He tossed the book back to Bill. "Quick and quiet." He tapped the side of his
nose.</p>
<p>"What, did you send Nardole out for coffee again?" Bill grinned. "You know
he's going to catch on sooner or later."</p>
<p>"Pffft!" The Doctor yanked at the controls with a dramatic flourish.
"New York City, here we come!"</p>
<p>The TARDIS shuddered and groaned, jerking violently enough to knock Bill off
her feet. Puffs of white smoke billowed out of the console.</p>
<p>The Doctor staggered into a railing, coughing and waving a hand in front
of his face. He scowled at the central column. "Yes, well, New York can be
tricky to navigate. If it's not one thing, it's another..."</p>
<p>Bill pulled herself warily to her feet. "And which 'thing' is it, then?"</p>
<p>The Doctor slapped at one of the monitors hanging over the console and
squinted at the display. "Hmm."</p>
<p>"Is that a good 'hmm' or a bad 'hmm'?"</p>
<p>"Very odd readings. It reminds me of something..." The Doctor stared intently
at the screen, the alien graphics scrolling past faster than Bill could
follow. "Whatever it was, the TARDIS really didn't like it. Scared her enough
to shunt us off course."</p>
<p>"Sounds dangerous." Bill wondered what could scare a semi-sentient (as far as
she could tell) space-and-time machine. Something going wrong with the fabric
of spacetime? "Maybe old Isaac fell into a wormhole."</p>
<p>The Doctor scoffed. "The TARDIS's danced through more wormholes than you've
had hot dinners. No, this is something else..."</p>
<p>Bill sat down on one of the chairs set at the outer edge of the circular
platform that held the TARDIS console. She could tell by the Doctor's
distracted expression that it would be no use talking to him until he had
solved his mystery. She flipped idly through the book. <em>Heroes and Villains</em>.
She didn't remember much of the plot. Something about fairy tale characters
with a twist, in a soap opera-ish drama. The book had obviously been intended
to be the first in a series, but the rest had never been published. Decently
written, Bill reflected, with interesting characters, but nowhere as good as
the hype (although that had vanished overnight, along with the author)
suggested.</p>
<p>"Aha!" The Doctor set new coordinates with an air of triumph.</p>
<p>"Aha?"</p>
<p>"Found him. He's here, in 2018." The TARDIS materialized with a thump. "We can
just ask him where he's been for the past five years..."</p>
<p>The mailbox read "Jack Scrivener", but the Doctor assured Bill it was the
right house, and the man who answered the door matched the picture on the back
cover of <em>Heroes and Villains</em>. Not that he admitted to it at first.</p>
<p>"Isaac Heller? You got the wrong address, lady."</p>
<p>Bill rolled her eyes. She held up the book and flashed the photo in his face
as if it were a badge.</p>
<p>"Oh. You're a fan."</p>
<p>"Your only fan, at a guess," said the Doctor, moving up to stand next to Bill.
"But that wasn't always the case. Someone's been tampering with reality, and
you're right in the middle of it, aren't you, Mr. Heller?"</p>
<p>Heller gulped visibly. His eyes darted past Bill and the Doctor. "It's just the two of you? 
Come on, then. Get inside."</p>
<p>It wasn't much of a house — small and dusty and cluttered, shabbily furnished.
Every surface was strewn with random books, papers, and empty coffee mugs.
Collectible figurines (still in their boxes) of <em>Heroes and Villains</em>
characters cluttered the mantelpiece.  Bill couldn't help but ask, "So, do you
still get royalties from <em>Heroes and Villains</em> or what? I mean, how does that
work?"</p>
<p>Isaac shrugged. "A trickle." He glanced around in distaste. "As you can see by
my luxurious and decadent lifestyle."</p>
<p>The Doctor was already scanning the man with his sonic screwdriver. He glanced
at the readings, then scoffed. "Forgotten profits from a forgotten book from
imaginary readers. That's one hell of a party trick. How'd you pull it off?"</p>
<p>Isaac eyed the sonic screwdriver. "How are you two remembering?  You're from
<em>there</em>, aren't you?"</p>
<p>The Doctor shook his head. "No, but I've passed through the place before. A land
populated by fictional characters, if I'm not mistaken. Where an author can
dictate the plot despite the intentions of the characters themselves..."</p>
<p>Bill and Isaac both stared at the Doctor, Bill in disbelief and Isaac with
suspicion.</p>
<p>The Doctor aimed an accusing finger at Isaac. "You were recruited... or should
I say kidnapped?"</p>
<p>"Seduced," muttered Isaac resentfully. "Never accept job offers from enigmatic
old men with oversized beards and secret agendas. 'Destiny', my ass!"</p>
<p>The Doctor nodded. "But you must have had potential, or you would have been
useless for the job."</p>
<p>"I always wanted to be a writer, and he said he was a publisher." Isaac shook
his head bitterly. "Should have guessed it was a scam."</p>
<p>"Wait, but didn't he publish that one bestseller of yours?" Bill gestured at
her copy of <em>Heroes and Villains.</em></p>
<p>"As if," snorted Isaac. "I had to arrange that on my own. No. It's hardly
'publishing' if they only produce a single copy. But that wasn't even the
worst part."</p>
<p>"Yeah? And what was that, then?" asked Bill.</p>
<p>"They <em>said</em> they wanted an Author." Isaac scoffed. "More like a reporter.
No, even less than that. A human tape recorder! So much for valuing my
creativity."</p>
<p>The Doctor frowned. "That can't be right. The whole point of using a human
is to tap into their powers of imagination." He gestured at his head. "All
those wires in your skull translating your thoughts into what passes for
reality in the Land of Fiction..."</p>
<p>Isaac blinked at the Doctor. "Wires? No, no, they gave me a magic pen and
magic ink."</p>
<p>"Hmm. Upgraded the interface, have they? But the effect must be much the same.
Whatever you write is what plays out in the land, creating entertainment
for bored Eternals..."</p>
<p>Isaac laughed. "Are you kidding? They specifically told me not to change
anything, not one word. So much for creativity! And the one time I tried, they
locked me up for thirty years inside the damned book."</p>
<p>"This one?" Bill nodded at <em>Heroes and Villains</em>.</p>
<p>"No, I wrote that after I escaped." Isaac scowled. "It was the book I always
wanted to write, but they wouldn't let me. So finally I took the pen and wrote
myself into the story and got my book published that way."</p>
<p>"You made yourself a fictional character," said the Doctor. He aimed the sonic
at Isaac again. "Perhaps not the wisest decision, Mr. Heller."</p>
<p>"It worked! Well, until that boy ruined everything."</p>
<p>"What boy?" asked Bill.</p>
<p>"Henry Mills. My successor. Someone gullible enough to fall for their 'chosen
one' shtick." Isaac rolled his eyes. "So then I wasn't the 'Author' anymore,
and I got locked up again, this time in what passes for a prison cell in
Storybrooke."</p>
<p>"You managed to get out, though," said Bill.</p>
<p>Isaac shrugged. "I waited for my chance and took it." He leaned forward and
smirked. "You know, every book has a final chapter. I told those idiots they
were facing the 'Final Battle' and they had worse things to worry about than a
harmless ex-Author."</p>
<p>"So you changed your name and moved here," said the Doctor.</p>
<p>"Thought I could make a fresh start and write the stories I wanted to write."</p>
<p>"And how'd that work out for you?"</p>
<p>Isaac's smug expression wilted, and a devastated look crossed his face
before he turned it into a scowl. He shook his head. "It was all gone. No
inspiration."</p>
<p>"Writer's block?" suggested Bill.</p>
<p>"No. I've had writer's block. It's never stopped me coming up with ideas, even
if I can't get the words down. This was different. No spark, you see."</p>
<p>"Spark?"</p>
<p>"Used to be, every little thing, I could turn it around to use in a story
somehow. People I met or read about, bits of them went into the characters I
created." Isaac sighed, lifting his hands in defeat. "Now? I got nothing.
Bupkis."</p>
<p>Bill glanced at the Doctor, who looked unsurprised. "What does it mean?"</p>
<p>"He's been drained of what you might call his creative energy."</p>
<p>"They didn't want it," snarled Isaac. "They said it wasn't my job to <em>create</em>
the stories, only to record them."</p>
<p>"Yet they went to all that trouble, and for what?" The Doctor's eyes narrowed.
"Doesn't make sense, does it? Why give you the power to change reality if they
didn't want you to use it?"</p>
<p>"And what does that have to do with the power to tell a good story, anyway?"
wondered Bill.</p>
<p>The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Exactly. I'm afraid they were lying to you,
Mr. Heller. No, they were stealing your creativity, but on a subconscious
level. They needed your sense of storytelling patterns, of plot and character
and drama."</p>
<p>"So you're saying I went from one shitty boss who sucked the life out of me to
another?" Isaac shook his head in disgust. "Why am I not surprised?"</p>
<p>"The universe is full of more parasitical beings than are dreamt of in your
philosophy," said the Doctor. "The more pressing question is, how did you get
from there to here, and how did your fiction of being a successful author
become true in the real world, even if for only a day?"</p>
<p>"That's a long story," said Isaac, but it wasn't difficult to coax it out of
him. He seemed to enjoy having an audience, almost pathetically gleeful at
being listened to.</p>
<p>Bill didn't know how much of it to believe. At the end of it, the Doctor
gave Isaac a speculative look.</p>
<p>"Don't you want to go back and find out how it all turned out?"</p>
<p>Isaac shuddered. "Hell, no."</p>
<p>"As you wish." They left Isaac to molder away in his little house in
Connecticut and returned to the TARDIS.</p><hr/>
<p>"So it's like Disneyland, except real?" Bill tried to wrap her head around the
whole concept of fantasy characters living in a small town in Maine.</p>
<p>"And far more dangerous." The Doctor's eyes narrowed as he drummed his fingers
against the console. "They shouldn't be in this universe at all."</p>
<p>"Right. So if we can believe Isaac, they're here because there's this sequel to 'Snow White' 
that's basically the ultimate fairy tale crossover. The so-called Evil Queen wanted
revenge, so she cast a curse created by Rumpelstiltskin, who wanted to find his long-lost
son, who somehow ended up in our reality. Rumpelstiltskin had a son?"</p>
<p>"So it would seem." The Doctor spun about and began pacing, rambling half to
himself, "Can't let ourselves be fooled by smoke and mirrors. It wouldn't be
the first time someone tried to use the Land of Fiction for their own
purposes..."</p>
<p>"What purposes?"</p>
<p>"To meddle with the timeline, to <em>fix</em> things as they see fit..."</p>
<p>"As <em>who</em> sees fit? Who are we talking about here, Doctor? The Evil Queen? The
fairies? Peter Pan?" Bill couldn't believe the words coming out of her mouth.</p>
<p>"Ha. The Evil Queen. <em>Regina</em>. That's Latin for 'queen'." The Doctor gave Bill
a look as if he had just dropped a brick on her head.</p>
<p>"Yeah, and...?" Bill had the feeling the clue-brick had missed her entirely.</p>
<p>"Some people are fond of their little word games. Especially Time Lords," the
Doctor muttered darkly. "<em>Rani</em> is Sanskrit for 'queen'. And there's the other
one. A grotesque imp with a fondness for deals, law, and antique clockworks..."</p>
<p>"Rumpelstiltskin?"</p>
<p>"No more over-the-top than calling yourself 'Mr. Popplewick', wouldn't you
say?"</p>
<p>"I suppose not," said Bill. "So you think they're using fake names, and
aren't actually fictional characters?"</p>
<p>"It's possible they're fictional <em>now</em>, but once upon a time... once upon a
time they were real enough."</p>
<p>"People you know, then? Old enemies?" By now, Bill had an inkling of how old the
Doctor was behind his human face — old enough to have accrued plenty of both
friends and enemies. "So, how did they end up in this Land of Fiction?"</p>
<p>The Doctor shrugged. "Who knows? But at a guess..." He froze, turning away
from Bill. "Oh."</p>
<p>"What is it?"</p>
<p>The Doctor was silent for a long moment, and when he spoke again, it was in
the soft cadences of a storyteller. "There was a war once. A storm that tore
across the universe, all through space and time, sparing no one. A war no one
could win. A war where even the renegades were conscripted from the past, the
present, and the future."</p>
<p>"Wait, but..." Bill thought about 'all through space and time' and whether
that included Earth in the twenty-first century.</p>
<p>"It ended," said the Doctor flatly. "But before then, well. It was a war one
might do anything to escape. Any port in a storm, whether that meant turning
yourself human and hiding at the end of time, or..."</p>
<p>"Or...?"</p>
<p>"Turning yourself fictional and hiding between the pages of a book." The Doctor
took the <em>Heroes and Villains</em> book from Bill and hooked it up to the TARDIS
console. "Once the war was over, they would need to turn themselves real
again. Hence the so-called 'Dark Curse' and the creation of a semi-fictional
town in our world. But I'm afraid that may only be the beginning..."</p>
<p>"Beginning of what, exactly?"</p>
<p>The Doctor scowled. "If I'm right about the true identities of this 'Evil
Queen' and 'Dark One'... Let's just say that fairy tale characters have
nothing on renegade Time Lords on megalomania and impractically complex
schemes."</p>
<p>"We're going to Storybrooke, then?"</p>
<p>The Doctor flashed her a grin and reached for a lever. "Brace yourself."</p><hr/>
<p>It looked like a stretch of empty highway in the middle of the forest, but
this was as close as the TARDIS could land to Storybrooke, according to the
Doctor.</p>
<p>"The first time I was in the Land of Fiction, the TARDIS pretty much
disintegrated," he told her.</p>
<p>"Yeah, ok, let's walk, then." And now here they were. Bill looked around in
confusion. "Are you sure you got the coordinates right?"</p>
<p>The Doctor stared intently at thin air, as far as Bill could tell. "It's out
of phase." He did something with the sonic screwdriver, then reached out for
Bill's hand. "Fingers crossed." Then he yanked hard—</p>
<p>—and she stumbled across the bright orange line suddenly visible on the road
and blinked at the "Welcome to Storybrooke" sign. "Whoa."</p>
<p>"Indeed." The Doctor frowned. </p>
<p>"So is this real, or have we walked into a fiction?" She pinched her arm
experimentally. "I feel real enough."</p>
<p>"No, no, pinching is for dreams. And it's not a reliable test in any event."
The Doctor inhaled deeply, and Bill bit back a question about whether
<em>breathing</em> was any more reliable. No doubt he had special alien senses that
as a mere human— "Oh, this is very bad. Come on." He started down the
road.</p>
<p>"What?" Bill followed, looking around for anything other than more forest and
the utterly deserted road that was beginning to feel creepy. Before she could
get an answer, an American police car came roaring down the road. "Uh,
Doctor..."</p>
<p>The Doctor ignored her, too busy squinting up at the sky and waving the sonic
this way and that.</p>
<p>The police car pulled to a stop, disgorging two men, neither of them in any
kind of uniform. One drew a handgun, while the other brandished a cutlass.
Bill stared at the long black leather coat and the hook he had instead of a
left hand. No. It couldn't be...</p>
<p>"Freeze!" commanded the man with the gun, and the other followed up with,
"Drop the wand, mate."</p>
<p>The Doctor lowered his gaze and gave them a disapproving scowl. "That's no way
to say hello. And it's not a wand, it's—"</p>
<p>"Drop it, I said," barked the man who looked every inch a stereotypical
cinematic pirate.</p>
<p>Bill sighed, raising her hands without being asked.</p>
<p>The Doctor carefully placed the sonic screwdriver on the ground before him.
"Look, we're here to help..." He straightened, gingerly fishing the psychic
paper from his coat and flashing what was functionally an all-purpose "I'm in
charge now" badge at the two strangers. "You may not be aware of it, but this
town is the center of a interdimensional vortex that may explode at any moment,
blasting this entire solar system into oblivion."</p>
<p>The strangers took it as a threat and arrested both of them. Bill and the
Doctor wound up in a locked cell under a hospital, confirming Bill's suspicion
that they hadn't been proper police at all. At least they were no longer
handcuffed, but they had each been left with a leather band around the wrist.</p>
<p>Bill tried to pry hers loose, to no avail. "What the hell?"</p>
<p>The Doctor ignored their new accessories in favor of shouting through the tiny
window set in the door, "Oh, for heaven's sake, listen! Time is stretched to
the breaking point and space isn't happy about it, either, and..." His voice
dropped in defeat. "You haven't a clue, have you?"</p>
<p>"I don't either," complained Bill. "I thought you said it was a land of
fiction. How would it blow up the solar system?"</p>
<p>The Doctor turned away from the door at last. "Because all of it's been shoved
into a patch of spacetime far too small to contain that kind of
pressure. Not only that, but it's been dragged back from about fifteen
years in the future, risking the kind of paradox that erases entire timelines.
Those idiots may think they have it under control, but they're fooling
themselves. If we don't stop them, this story can only end in tragedy."</p><hr/>
<p>Upon receiving the emergency call from David, Regina, the queen of the United
Realms, cut her tour of New Wonderland short and teleported herself back to
her office in Storybrooke, where he and Captain Hook reported the arrival of
two strangers from the outside, the land purportedly without magic.  Her son,
Henry Mills — current Author and designated "research guy" — took
notes on his laptop while his daughter Lucy consulted the magical storybook
that contained their stories.</p>
<p>Regina examined the wand and paper they had confiscated from the outsiders and
silently cursed the Dark One for false advertising. For a land supposedly
without magic, magical items turned up with alarming frequency. "Great. We
have a new sorcerer in town."</p>
<p>"It's been a while since we had a villain of the week show up," said Henry
almost wistfully. "It'll make a change from my evil twin and my evil grandpa
stirring up trouble."</p>
<p>"He's not your 'evil twin'," protested Regina. "I'm sure I can get through to
him. We just need to be patient."</p>
<p>"Maybe the new sorcerer isn't a villain, either," said Lucy. She chewed on the
tip of her pen and unfolded the poster she had made of their convoluted family
tree. "I wonder what his connection to Storybrooke is?" If their history was
anything to go by, it was as likely as not that the stranger was actually a
long lost relative with a grudge.</p>
<p>Henry eyed his daughter's chart with the multicolored lines and arrows going
everywhere. "I don't know how you can possibly fit anyone else in there."</p>
<p>"By his accent, he's a countryman of the Crocodile," said Hook. "If you're
looking for a family connection, I'd start there."</p>
<p>Regina sighed. "Just what we need. I've had it up to here with Scottish
wizards getting between us and our happy endings."</p>
<p>"Don't worry, Grandma. Good always defeats evil," Lucy assured her, and Regina
had to smile at how much she sounded like Henry had as a child.</p>
<p>David chuckled. "That's right, Lucy. We have the Author, the Savior, the
Good Queen, and a team of heroes. The villains don't stand a chance."</p><hr/>
<p>Bill and the Doctor were released from the cell by a blond woman in a green
dress who introduced herself as "Tink."</p>
<p>"Tink. Tink as in... Tinker Bell?" Bill could almost see it, though the woman
looked human as opposed to being a six inch tall flying pixie.</p>
<p>"Never mind that. You have to come with me before the queen catches up to
you," said Tink. "This way!"</p>
<p>"She sounds like an interesting person," said the Doctor. "I want to meet
her."</p>
<p>"No, you don't!" hissed Tink. "Not unless you fancy being rewritten as another
of her happy little worshippers, probably as an ex-villain she's 'redeemed'."</p>
<p>"Ah. Maybe later, then." He moved to follow Tink down the corridor.</p>
<p>"Wait, what about our stuff?" asked Bill as the reached the door at the end.
"They took the Doctor's sonic."</p>
<p>Tink shook her head. "You'll have to leave it, sorry." Then she stopped them
in the stairwell halfway up to the next floor and took out a small jar filled
with some kind of paste. "We don't have much time. They'll notice the breech
in the wards." She dipped a finger in the jar, then daubed the paste on the
wall. A glowing purple and gold circle appeared.</p>
<p>"Is that a portal? How the hell did you do that?" Then Bill kicked herself
mentally. Land of Fiction. Fairy tales. Magic. She wouldn't be surprised if
superheroes showed up next. "Never mind."</p>
<p>Tink answered anyway, "Magic bean paste. Go on."</p>
<p>"Is that bean paste that's been enchanted, or...?" mused the Doctor, who
stretched out a hand to feel at the portal.</p>
<p>"Paste made from magic beans," explained Tink. "More efficient than using
whole beans."</p>
<p>"Ok, then," said Bill, wondering how much they could trust Tink. "Guess you
won't be using that as a dessert filling..."</p>
<p>"I don't think she's inviting us for dinner." The Doctor looked at Tink.
"Whose side are you on, if you're not working for the queen?"</p>
<p>"The Resistance."</p>
<p>"Oh yes, always a popular trope." The Doctor glanced at Bill, "Shall we?"</p>
<p>She nodded, thinking that there were much easier and more plausible ways to
kill them, if that was what Tink wanted. "Go for it."</p>
<p>The Doctor stepped into the glowing circle and vanished. Bill closed her eyes
and plunged after him.</p><hr/>
<p>The Resistance was based in an old library, old as in centuries old by the
architecture and ancient tomes piled about.  The two who met the Doctor and
Bill as they stepped out of the portal were dressed as antiquely as the
library. They introduced themselves as Thomas "Tam" Black and Belle.</p>
<p>The Doctor eyed them critically. "I'm the Doctor and this is my friend, Bill."</p>
<p>"Welcome to our little war." Tam removed the leather cuffs from around their
wrists with a theatrical flourish and a puff of maroon smoke. "Magic
blockers," he explained. "Nasty stuff."</p>
<p>Bill rubbed her forearm. She didn't feel any different, which was
disappointing but not surprising. "I don't have any magic, although <em>you</em>
clearly do.  Which fairy tales are you two, then?"</p>
<p>"Tam Lin and Janet," said the man, smirking slightly.</p>
<p>The woman swatted him on the arm. "I'm not changing my name. That just gives
them more ammunition to claim I'm not 'real'.  Anyhow, more than one person
can share the same name."</p>
<p>"It's different for magic users," said the man. "Besides, it's the name my
mother would have given me, if that interfering blue gnat had had the decency
to stay out of our lives."</p>
<p>"He's Rumpelstiltskin from an alternate timeline," Tink put in, rolling her
eyes. "They're 'Beauty and the Beast'."</p>
<p>"So I've heard." The Doctor stared hard at Tam (or was it Rumpelstiltskin?)
and fell silent. He inched forward, raising a hand, fingers spread, towards
the other man's face.</p>
<p>Tam stood his ground, meeting the Doctor's gaze without flinching.</p>
<p>The woman calling herself Belle tensed, but didn't say anything, her eyes
glinting faintly red as she watched the Doctor. Something about her unnatural
pallor and fierce expression made Bill wonder which of them was meant to be
the Beast.</p>
<p>The Doctor's fingers brushed against Tam's face. Then he jumped back,
startled.</p>
<p>"What is it?" Bill looked from one to the other. Tam's faint smile remained
placid.</p>
<p>The Doctor cleared his throat sheepishly. "Oh dear. This is rather
embarrassing."</p>
<p>Everyone looked at the Doctor.</p>
<p>He gestured vaguely, then finally admitted, "I thought you were me."</p>
<p>Tam scoffed. "I may be the fake, alternate reality version of someone, dearie,
but that someone is certainly not you!"</p>
<p>The Doctor sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Last time the Valeyard
tricked me with a rubber mask and cheap theatrics. I didn't want to be caught
out again..."</p>
<p>So many questions. Bill made a mental note to ask him about it later.</p>
<p>"'Valeyard'?" Belle's posture shifted from fiercely protective to sharply
curious.</p>
<p>The Doctor gestured dismissively. "A name and a future I hope never to cross
paths with again."</p>
<p>Tink muttered, "...as Regina said when she split off her darker self and tried
to kill it, and we all know how successful <em>that</em> was."</p>
<p>Bill glanced at the Doctor. "If you were wrong about 'Rumpelstiltskin',
maybe you're wrong about Regina being the Rani, too."</p>
<p>"Better safe than sorry," the Doctor retorted.</p>
<p>"Regina has always been Regina," said Tam. "I've known her since she was a
babe in arms."</p>
<p>"Never mind all that," said Tink. "What brings you to our land? Are you people
we can work with?"</p>
<p>"And if we aren't, you'll try to kill us?" The Doctor smiled suddenly.
"You know, the first time I was in this land, the natives could only speak the
lines written for them. When they threatened me, it was on behalf of their
master, the one you call the Author. But you, you lot have your own ideas,
don't you?"</p>
<p>"We decide our own destinies," said Belle. "I admit it was a shock when I
found out that Tam wasn't being paranoid when he said we weren't real, but
we're not going to let anyone else write our stories for us anymore."</p>
<p>"You're not the first to make that attempt," mused the Doctor. "The people who
chose the Author..."</p>
<p>"Merlin, or maybe his apprentice, under his orders," supplied Belle. "But
they're dead now."</p>
<p>"They had more freedom than most, being the liberated tools of what was once
called the 'Master Brain', that being the controlling intelligence of the Land
of Fiction."</p>
<p>"Merlin was said to have gained his powers from the Holy Grail," noted Tam.</p>
<p>"It's a land of fiction — names and appearances are malleable," said the
Doctor. "We spoke to Mr. Heller. He was given strict orders to allow for free
will, but they had to leave him with the power to shape your fictional
reality, at least subconsciously, because otherwise you would remain trapped
in the lines given to you in the real world."</p>
<p>"But you guys are way different from the traditional fairy tales," said Bill.
"So clearly you did break free from your stories."</p>
<p>"We want to do away with the need for an Author at all," said Belle.
"Tam figured out a way to let each of us write our own books."</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, Regina refuses to listen to us," Tink explained wearily.
"She has everyone entangled in her latest curse, the one which allowed her to
ascend to power over almost all of the storytelling realms by bringing them
here. She's trapped everyone inside their happy endings, but you try telling
her that's not necessarily a good thing, especially when the whole Snow and
Charming clan support her."</p>
<p>"To be fair, that does sound like something the Rani would do," said the
Doctor in an aside to Bill. "Dangerous, completely mad, yet full of genius in
its own perverse way."</p>
<p>"It did get her what she wanted, and her family is happy," said Tink.  "So
when we say we can be our own authors, she thinks we're trying to ruin
their happiness.  When we tell them we need to remove the realms from the Land
Without Magic, they think it's Tam trying to get revenge on Regina."</p>
<p>"They're convinced he's evil," sighed Belle.</p>
<p>Tam rubbed Belle's back, his expression softening. "It's understandable.
Regina has a grudge against me for causing the death of 'her' version of
me."</p>
<p>"That wasn't your fault," said Belle loyally.</p>
<p>"It's arguable. The Dark One caused a fine mess when no one else was home."</p>
<p>"'What?" This was definitely neither the Rumpelstiltskin nor the Tam Lin from
her world's fiction, thought Bill.</p>
<p>Tam tapped his own chest. "We shared a body for a few centuries until his
recent demise."</p>
<p>"Riiight. I should have known."</p>
<p>Tink looked at Tam. "She also hates you for corrupting her son."</p>
<p>"He isn't her son. Just because she adopted him in her version of the story
doesn't make the one from my world her son."</p>
<p>"She also doesn't want him near a blood-drinking demon like me," added Belle.</p>
<p>"If she doesn't like what you are, sweetheart, she shouldn't have starved you
to death in her dungeon." Tam glanced at Bill. "There's a reason people called
Regina the 'Evil Queen'."</p>
<p>"I'll say..." Bill eyed Belle warily. "You're not, ah, hungry right now, are
you?"</p>
<p>Belle smiled, exposing wickedly sharp fangs. "It's fine. I get donations from
our supporters. I don't need so much, just a little from each keeps me
going."</p>
<p>"Crowdsourcing, huh? Sort of like GoFundMe for the undead?" Bill wondered idly
if there were vampires in real life, too, and if so, whether the NHS provided
services for their condition. At Belle's confused look, Bill shook her head.
"Never mind. A murder-free diet is a good thing, and so is free will, right,
Doctor?"</p>
<p>"And so is the Earth staying in one piece." The Doctor grinned and rubbed his
palms together. "So! If we can convince this Regina to see sense, you already
have a way to restore this land to its proper plane, while freeing the
inhabitants?"</p>
<p>Tam nodded. "You'll help us?"</p>
<p>"Of course! Love a good Resistance. Evil Queens are there to be overthrown."</p>
<p>"Regina is the Good Queen now, Doctor," warned Tink. "Everyone is insistent on
that point, which makes us evil, as far as they're concerned."</p>
<p>The Doctor pulled up a chair and leaned back. "All right. Tell me more about
the Evil Queen, the Good Queen, and her so-called curse. Perhaps what you
people need is a fresh pair of eyes or two..."</p><hr/>
<p>Her other self had gone soft, thought the darker half of Regina, the one who
still reveled in the power that came with being the Evil Queen. She should
have killed the intruders when she had the chance, instead of allowing the
renegade fairy to take them.</p>
<p>And now they were back in Storybrooke. No doubt they thought they were
clever, sneaking in to see the so-called "Good" Queen. The Evil Queen watched
them through a mirror and laughed silently. What would Regina do when faced
with a threat to her happiness?  The Charming clan were fools, which made Regina
even more of a fool for pretending to be one of them.</p>
<p><em>When you find your happiness, you have to grasp it tight and never let it
go.</em> Rumplestiltskin had once said that to Robin Hood, but he hadn't listened,
and neither had Regina, which was why she had lost him to oblivion. Had she
learned her lesson yet, or would she need the Evil Queen to do what had to be
done?</p>
<p>Regina would be horrified by the reminder. But only for a moment. The Evil
Queen was as much Henry's mother as Regina was, and he would write the story she
needed.  He had done it before. He would do it again. But he would never
remember, because the Evil Queen knew better than to let the memory fester and
turn against her.</p>
<p><em>Have you considered that, just possibly, you've made a dreadful mistake that
will doom this entire planet and everyone on it?</em> the stranger, the one who
called himself the Doctor, babbled at Regina.</p>
<p><em>Nonsense. I don't know what that lunatic told you, but for once everyone is
happy and united with their families,</em> said Regina, leaning forward and
resting her hands on the mayoral desk between them as if hoping that its
authority would shut the man up. No such luck.</p>
<p>
  <em>But how long can you sustain it, hmm? Have you done the calculations? I
have.</em>
</p>
<p>The other stranger, the woman, fiddled with her phone, apparently bored with
the argument.</p>
<p>Well, anyone would be, thought the Evil Queen with amusement. "In the old
days, no one who wanted to keep their heart in their chests would have dared
speak to me that way."</p>
<p>"Really, dearie?" An all-too-familiar giggle sounded behind her. Before she
could react, something snaked around her wrist. "I'm hurt that you consider me
'no one'."</p>
<p>The Evil Queen whirled to face the intruder, who had already backed up a step.
"You vile little imp!" She tried to summon a fireball to her palm, but nothing
happened. Then she saw the magic-blocking cuff on her forearm. "Damn you!"</p>
<p>"Ah, ah, ah!" Her old teacher and tormentor (some version of him, at least)
shook a finger at her. "Manners, manners."</p>
<p>"I'd hardly call breaking into my house without an invitation polite,"
snapped the Evil Queen.</p>
<p>"Think of it this way: if your house was on fire, wouldn't you want someone to
get you out, rather than quibble about invitations?"</p>
<p>The Evil Queen's retort was interrupted by a cloud of magic that swept both of
them <em>elsewhere</em>.</p><hr/>
<p>Bill managed not to yelp when two people suddenly materialized in the room.
One was Tam and the other was Regina, dressed like some kind of fairy tale
villain — which of course she was.</p>
<p>The other Regina, the one in modern business chic, looked stunned. "You! How
the hell did you get through my wards?"</p>
<p>"I had a bit of help, dearie." Tam grinned and nodded at Bill.</p>
<p>Bill cleared her throat and waved her mobile in the air, displaying the
thumbnail image of Tam on the screen. "Yeah, I called him."</p>
<p>"Law of correspondence," said the Doctor smugly. "A picture of a fictional
character is the character, and if he's here, he's here."</p>
<p>"He's not — <em>we're</em> not..." Both Reginas spoke at the same time, then both
faltered.</p>
<p>"Oh, yes, we are," said Tam in a sing-song voice. "And here <em>you</em> are. Well,
Doctor? You said we needed the Evil Queen if we wanted to break this curse."</p>
<p>"Yes," said the Doctor. "All this time, you've been trying to reason with the
wrong person. This is Regina's spell, but the Evil Queen is also Regina. The
curse is her curse, too, and she's the one who wrote in the time loop."</p>
<p>"Time loop?" Regina frowned in confusion. "That was only the first curse. This
one is different."</p>
<p>The Evil Queen jeered, "You were always too weak to hold onto our
happiness. You'll never be happier than you are this moment: you have your
family, everyone loves you, you were chosen to be the queen of the united
realms..."</p>
<p>"'And they all lived happily ever after,'" said Bill. "Is that what you
mean?" Apparently the characters couldn't completely escape their fairy tale
roots!</p>
<p>"The pinnacle of our existence," agreed the Evil Queen. "And the thing about a
pinnacle is..."</p>
<p>"...it's all downhill from there." The Doctor nodded. "So that's why you've
trapped everyone in this misplaced bubble of time and space."</p>
<p>Regina's expression went from baffled to horrified as the truth penetrated.
"I never noticed..."</p>
<p>"You have no stomach for the truth," said the Evil Queen. "You wouldn't be
happy if you knew, so I made sure you didn't. Well, Henry made you forget, and I made <em>him</em>
forget, but the dear boy wants his mother to be happy, so it's worked out rather well."</p>
<p>"And you're happy to hold it over me," growled Regina. "This ends now."</p>
<p>The Evil Queen laughed. "Fine. I was getting bored, anyway. I look forward to
the lynch mob when all those fools who 'voted' you queen wake up and realize
you cursed them into kneeling at your feet."</p>
<p>Regina grimaced. "I... I honestly didn't mean to."</p>
<p>"You didn't do it alone," said Tam. "Your family believed in you, and that
belief went into the curse because they all put a piece of themselves into
it. Well, I admit I never saw that one coming! You finally convinced the
people to see your kindness through the charred remains of their villages..."</p>
<p>"I'm not that person anymore," protested Regina.</p>
<p>The Evil Queen laughed at her. "Prove it."</p>
<p>Regina looked pained. "The danger is real?"</p>
<p>"I can show you the evidence," said Tam. "And your other half is in no
position to lie."</p>
<p>Neither Regina trusted the other, nor did they trust Tam, the Doctor, or Bill
herself, but they eventually let themselves be persuaded that the queen's
curse <em>was</em> a curse and it needed to be broken. Without the Evil Queen's magic
influencing his mind, Henry Mills was summoned to put pen to paper one last
time to release them from the story.</p>
<p>The Doctor and Tam had explained the truth of the Author's role to him. "After
this, it won't be necessary. All the characters will finally be able to live
their own lives rather than existing as plot devices."</p>
<p>"So it was all a lie." A hurt look crossed Henry's face. "It was bad enough
to find out that the book I thought I had written was created by a curse. Now
you're saying the other stories I recorded, I was only being used by the
magic?"</p>
<p>"I'm afraid so," the Doctor told him. "You're not the first, but you can be
the last. Cheer up! You brought life to a whole cast of characters. Not
everyone can say that."</p>
<p>"But if they all go back to the Land of Fiction, and I was born outside, does
that mean I'll be separated from my family?" Henry asked. "My wife, my
daughter, they're all from there."</p>
<p>"As it happens, I've thought of that." The Doctor looked smug. "Isaac Heller
wrote himself into the story and became fictional, but I doubt he wants to go
back. I can switch your reality quotients without disturbing things too much."</p>
<p>"It'll still be Storybrooke on the other side," mused Henry. "I think people
got used to the modern lifestyle. They'll want to keep it."</p>
<p>"It's fiction. The level of technology is up to you. The world exists to the
extent visible required by the story. Of course, it's more dangerous now that
the characters can change things freely," said the Doctor. "No more <em>dei ex
machina</em>. No more plot armor. No more heroes and villains."</p>
<p>"No more major and minor characters," said Bill. "Everyone has a name and a
story. I suppose that makes life messier, but that's how it goes."</p>
<p>The Resistance already had their people in place to ease the transition back
to their original plane. For once, everything went smoothly.</p>
<p>"That just goes to show, when people write their own stories, they don't try
to make things more exciting just because it's more fun to read about,"
observed Bill after they had returned to the TARDIS. She shot the Doctor a
suspicious look.</p>
<p>"What?" The Doctor almost managed to look innocent. "Things go wrong. That's
entropy. That's life. Besides, the TARDIS is an adventurous old thing."</p>
<p>"Hmm." Bill decided not to press the issue. "So, do you think Isaac will get
his mojo back?"</p>
<p>"He's real again. Whether that will be enough is up to him."</p>
<p>"You said you'd been to the Land of Fiction before. Who was the Author then?"</p>
<p>"A writer of boy's adventures for a penny dreadful. The Land of Fiction tended
to choose hack writers, not the literary elite." The Doctor chuckled. "An
unflattering fact the Sorcerer's Apprentice left out when recruiting Mr.
Heller."</p>
<p>"Ah, well, we don't have to tell him," said Bill. A few delusions were
probably necessary for any kind of happy ending in real life. "Who knows,
maybe we'll see him in Bristol on a book tour in a few years."</p>
<p>The Doctor didn't reply. He pulled the lever to close the doors and sent the
TARDIS into the vortex. Into another adventure.</p>
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